J's This Is It in Oscars race

Sony believes its documentary on Michael Jackson could well be in the race for the Best Picture Oscar award.

The company’s spokesman Steve Elzer said the studio would submit the documentary on the late King of Pop, titled This Is It, to the Academy Awards panel for consideration.

Although This Is It has missed the deadline for consideration as the best documentary of 2009, it can still compete for the Oscars in other categories including Sound, Film Editing, Director and Best Picture.

This Is It was released across the world this week and has already won fans’ praise and critical acclaim, apart from earning 12.3 million pounds in just two days.

Jackson’s long time collaborator, Kenny Ortega has directed the film from over 100 hours of footage recorded while MJ was rehearsing for his July 2010 O2 shows.

"What we did here was focus on telling a good story and creating a film for the fans, really enabling them to understand what Michael Jackson had dreamed for them," the Daily Express quoted Ortega, as saying.

He added that he hoped "the audience for this film will grow and that as many people come to see it as possible because I think that it's a wonderful story about a brilliant man. ... Awards, Oscars, that's all great wishful thinking."